Ramona wildlife center opens new veterinary clinic

Ramona, CA_2/6/2014_The Fund for Animals wildlife center in Ramona held a press conference to show off its newest addition, a 5,200-square-foot medical facility which opened in December. The building is equipped with a surgery suite, nursery and ICU, and houses the center's offices and food-preparation kitchen for providing specialized meals for a diverse range of injured and orphaned wildlife. Photo credit: John Gastaldo/U-T San Diego Mandatory Credit: John Gastaldo/U-T San Diego/Zuma Press
— John Gastaldo

Ramona, CA_2/6/2014_The Fund for Animals wildlife center in Ramona held a press conference to show off its newest addition, a 5,200-square-foot medical facility which opened in December. The building is equipped with a surgery suite, nursery and ICU, and houses the center's offices and food-preparation kitchen for providing specialized meals for a diverse range of injured and orphaned wildlife. Photo credit: John Gastaldo/U-T San Diego Mandatory Credit: John Gastaldo/U-T San Diego/Zuma Press
— John Gastaldo

RAMONA  A wildlife center in Ramona that for 30 years has been caring for injured birds, bears, bobcats and other animals unveiled a new $1 million dollar veterinary clinic on Thursday.

The 13-acre center is operated by The Fund for Animals Wildlife, just off Highland Valley Road near the Ramona Grasslands. The group is an affiliate of The Humane Society of the United States and society President and CEO Wayne Pacelle flew in from Washington D.C. for the clinic’s ribbon-cutting Thursday.

“This entire center is for wildlife here in San Diego County and other surrounding counties in California as well,” Pacelle said to about 75 donors, supporters and staff gathered in front of the new clinic. “Every little life form has its own sort of volition, it’s own will to live, it’s own feelings. These creatures are not going to be forgotten. They matter.”

The center first opened in 1984 and has grown into a large complex filled with various animal specific compounds. There’s the bobcat rehabilitation area, the mountain lion sanctuary, the coyote rehab area, the snake rehab area, and many others.

The center’s director, Ali Crumpacker, said it took six years of fundraising to build the new clinic. Construction was completed in December just as the need has heightened.

“Over the last couple years we’ve seen an increase of over 20 percent with the animals that are coming to us for help,” Crumpacker said. “This is allowing us to triple our patient capacity from what we had before. The old space allowed us only to work with 20 to 30 animals at one time. This building — we have so much room in here (5,200 square feet) — allows us to work with 50 to 80 animals at one time.”

The center provides year-round medical and rehabilitative care to ill, injured and orphaned predatory species of wildlife with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. The center rehabilitates nearly 500 animals each year with minimal human interaction to allow wildlife to develop skills necessary for future survival, Crumpacker said.

Animals are brought to Ramona from all over Southern California.

“These places are the lifeline for wildlife because wildlife gets in situations of distress every single day and there has to be a place for them,” he said.